David Montoya is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunrise Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

Sunrise Mountain High School’s varsity football program has not had a losing season since 2009, and head coach Steve Decker plans on continuing that same success in 2020.

“This is a winning program,” Decker said. “We’re expected to work hard. We’re expected to win here at Sunrise Mountain High School. That’s the culture we built.”

Decker hasn’t had any problems upholding that standard in his years with Sunrise Mountain. Since Decker took over as head coach in 2016, he holds a regular season record of 32-8. As a result, his team has made four consecutive playoff appearances, including a semifinals appearance in 2016.

“We talk about it all the time,” Decker said. “We have guys that came before them and changed the culture of the program.”

One of those guys was Alexander Gianoli, last season’s starting quarterback. According to MaxPreps, Gianoli threw for 1,655 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 724 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2019. Gianoli led the Sunrise Mountain to a 7-3 record along with a playoff win. The team’s season ended with a loss in the 5A quarterfinals.

With Gianoli now graduated, Decker is confident someone will step up to fulfill that role and believes his team will build off of last season’s successes. As of now, Decker has three players that are training to take over under center; each of which were not on the team last season.

“We have three transfer quarterbacks,” Decker said. “We’re still in the middle of seeing who will be our starter.”

Decker said each of these players are capable of filling the role Gianoli left behind.

The Mustangs’ coaching staff elected team captains last week and plan on naming their starting quarterback early this week. Normally a starting quarterback would be named much earlier, but because of the competition at the position, the Mustangs have yet to do so. In addition, the Arizona Interscholastic Association announced only a month ago that the 2020 football season would take place. In turn, a lack of offseason workouts has given the coaches less time to gauge the skills of their players.

Along with the announcement of the ‘20 season came shortened game schedules and a smaller playoff bracket. Sunrise Mountain’s 2020 schedule will consist of eight games, rather than 10 as seen in previous years. Meanwhile, only eight teams in the 5A conference will move on to the postseason. Still, this isn’t seen as a negative by Decker.

“Our schedule is tougher, which is what we wanted,” Decker said. “Each game means more.”

The Mustangs’ strength of schedule is more difficult than last season. Decker views it as an opportunity to gain confidence throughout the year.

“We’re going to be battle tested,” Decker said. “We want to see where we’re at playing some of the better teams of the state.”

Sunrise Mountain High School will have every opportunity to be battle tested this Friday against Cactus High School. According to Decker, walking away with a win would make a serious statement in the 5A conference and would be a great way to kick off the 2020 season.